Cybersecurity: Respond To The Rising Threat Of Hacking

The threat of cyber hacking just keeps getting worse. Since the beginning of this year, the hack of Microsoft Exchange Servers that began in January gave hackers access to user emails and passwords on over 250,000 servers belonging to over 30,000 organizations in the U.S. Weeks earlier, it was discovered that in 2020 hackers in Russia had planted malware on Orion software used by SolarWind to manage IT resources, and this malware was distributed in software updates to over 33,000 SolarWind customers. A few days ago it was disclosed that Colonial Pipeline had been hacked in an extortion attempt that shut down one of the largest gas pipelines in the U.S.

In response to the recent Colonial Pipeline hack, President Biden issued an Executive Order on May 12¹ to increase cyber security at federal agencies and to require government contractors to step up their cybersecurity game. The Executive Order will have direct and indirect benefits for the private sector.